Ukraine: MSF emergency ambulance teams respond to bombing in Sumy city

Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) emergency ambulance teams provided medical assistance to injured residents in a densely populated area in Sumy city, northeastern Ukraine, after it was bombed on the evening of 17 November.

Eleven deaths were reported, including a nine-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl. According to local authorities 84 people were wounded, including 11 children.

The explosion struck a courtyard surrounded by residential buildings, damaging 13 structures and dozens of apartments. 

“It’s hard when you see the lifeless bodies of children,” says Hanna Sushkina, an MSF emergency doctor. 

“When we arrived, their bodies had already been carried out of the burning building. There was a long line of ambulances. The windows in nearby buildings were shattered, fires were raging, and rescue workers were extinguishing the flames while carrying out the injured and the deceased.”

The MSF team treated four residents with injuries. 

“One patient described sitting on her sofa when the attack occurred. Shattered glass caused cuts, and many people we saw were experiencing acute stress and disorientation,” Hanna explains.

The attack caused a temporary power outage in the area. Rescue crews used floodlights to continue their work in the dark. 

A second strike

While MSF was on-site, there was a second strike nearby, prompting the team to relocate patients to a nearby shelter to continue care. 

“Responding to these strikes is extremely difficult. Ongoing bombardment or even ‘double taps’ put medical responders at risk,” says Thomas Marchese, MSF emergency coordinator in Ukraine. 

“This can delay the response time, limiting essential medical care in an emergency situation." 

Since October 2024, MSF’s ambulance project has been active in Sumy, offering medical care during missile strikes and transferring patients between healthcare facilities across Ukraine. 

In just two months, MSF teams have transported more than 150 patients from Sumy to cities including Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr. Most of these patients required intensive care referrals. 

What is happening in the Sumy region?

The Sumy region, which borders the Russian Federation to the north and east, has faced a worsening humanitarian situation, as reported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 

In August and September, the situation deteriorated significantly, with a notable surge in attacks. In September the number of attacks in the Sumy district rose by 141 percent compared to the total over the preceding 12 months. 

At the start of the escalation, cities of the region, including Konotop and Trostianets, were temporarily occupied by Russian forces. 

These areas returned to Ukrainian control in early April 2022. However, due to the region’s proximity to the frontline, people continue to endure daily attacks on critical infrastructure.